BETWEEN THE LINES

What Muslim-Americans really believe

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators News Service.. He is the author or co-author of 13 books, including his latest, "The Tea Party Manifesto," and his classic, "Taking America Back," now in its third edition and 14th printing. Farah is the former editor of the legendary Sacramento Union and other major-market dailies.

Nearly half of those polled, a scientific sampling of 600, said parodies of Muhammad should be criminally prosecuted with offenders given punishments as severe as the death penalty;

40 percent of Muslims believe they should not be judged by U.S. law and the Constitution, but by Shariah standards and Islamic judges;

Only 30 percent believe Christians have a right to evangelize Muslims;

20 percent say Muslim men should be allowed to have more than one wife;

58 percent said any criticism of their religion should not be allowed under the Constitution – even while nine of 10 said they support the First Amendment;

One in three said Israel has no right to exist or were uncertain about it;

72 percent said they would definitely be voting for Barack Obama, while another 8.5 percent were leaning in that direction;

Only 11 percent were supporting Mitt Romney at the time – just days before the November vote;

About 55 percent said the U.S. is generally on the right track.

Now, maybe you question the authenticity or reliability of this survey. Maybe you think it was biased. Maybe you think the sampling of Muslims, 98 percent of whom have U.S. citizenship, wasn’t large enough.

Well, shortly after WND commissioned this survey by respected pollster Fritz Wenzel, another similar survey was commissioned by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which bills itself as a Muslim civil-rights organization but which in fact is a Muslim Brotherhood front group.

The results were strikingly similar – at least on the questions asked in both surveys. This CAIR survey, conducted on a smaller sampling of 500, received extensive coverage by the media.

The CAIR survey found:

68 percent of Muslim-Americans planned to vote for vote for Obama with 7 percent going for Romney;

66 percent said they identify with the Democratic Party, while only 9 percent affiliated as Republicans.

In other words, the CAIR survey validates the Wenzel poll – even though it didn’t seek answers on some of the more troubling issues of the law and constitutional liberties.

So what are the takeaways from this first survey of Muslim-Americans about Islamism and Shariah?

The Pew Research Center estimates America is home to 2.6 million Muslims. Groups like CAIR put the numbers much higher – by a factor of two or three times.

Whatever the real numbers are, Americans have reason to be concerned about continued immigration of Muslims into the U.S. when so many already here, including those who have established citizenship, have values and beliefs that stand in stark contrast to the Constitution sand the values and beliefs that shaped it.

Already, massive immigration of Muslims has changed the very character of much of Europe, where special Shariah courts have been established, creating societies with entirely different legal standards.

Do we really want that for America?

In fact, we need to ask ourselves how many people who took oaths to uphold the Constitution to obtain their citizenship really meant it. Is that standard sufficient for Muslims, who are encouraged by their faith to deceive if it furthers the cause of Islam?

“Multiculturalism” is much in vogue in the U.S. But if blind allegiance to a nice-sounding phrase of inclusiveness spells the eventual doom of our national heritage, is it really the right path to follow?

Quite simply, we need to collectively and individually ask ourselves a simple question: Is continued immigration into the U.S. by Muslims in the best interest of preserving our liberties?